Special report:   2008 Olympic Games    

    By Velia Hernandez Rojas

    MEXICO CITY, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Professors and students from the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) are expecting the upcoming Beijing Olympics with great enthusiasm, because three athletes and one judge of the Mexican Olympic delegation are from their university.

    Four members of the leading university of Ibero-America are very proud of the rare opportunity to develop their athletic skills and compete during the Olympics.

    Naomi Valenzo Aoki, who majors in the Accounting and Administration, will participate in the Games as a gymnastic judge in uneven bars.

    She is the only Latin American nominated by the Federation International of Gymnastics (FIG) to be a member of the gymnastics jury.

    Valenzo attended the 2004 Athens Olympics as a judge, but in Beijing she will act as a crew member of the "A" panel, a superior jury.

    Adriana Corona Garcia who studies in the same faculty as Valenzo, will be the first Mexican female to compete in the triathlon.

    She won gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games in 2006 and finished the seventh at the Pan-American Games of Rio de Janeiro 2007.

    Another student Aida Roman, 19, got the pass to the Olympics after competing in the tour of Archery World Cup in the Dominican Republic, Croatia, Turkey and France.

    Roman also won four gold and one bronze medals during the Archery Grand Prix of Merida in 2007.

    Angelina Larios, president of the Fencing Association of UNAM, will compete in Beijing in her specialty: the sabre.

    Larios was qualified for the Beijing Olympic Games by the International Fencing Federation (FIE) after she won the tour of the Fencing World Cup in Britain, Russia, Hungary, Spain, Italy and Algeria.

    Ignacio Martinez, researcher of the UNAM's Study Center of Mexico-China said that UNAM should take advantage of the Beijing Olympics to exchange views with the universities in China and analyze China's educational policies, which serve as an engine for China's take-off.

    The Mexican academia consider that this year's Olympics has special significance because its host country China has emerged as an indispensable player in the world.

    Mexican historian and UNAM professor Juan Brom told Xinhua that the Games will help spread the Chinese culture.

    Martinez said that the Games are a perfect opportunity for China to show its economic power, cultural development and technological growth.

    UNAM's professor of Public Administration and Political Science Salvador Mora said that the Olympic Games could generate benefits for the cultural and social fields as well as environmental protection.